Boot virus/malware scan with Windows 11 (Surface Laptop)

Sumanji

Sumanji

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 28, 2018
Messages
144
My wife's laptop is "running super slow", so I wanted to start from basics and run a startup boot scan for any malware / viruses (using something like ESET SysRescue).

However it seems super tricky to get around the Windows Secure boot restrictions to get this to work... used to be much easier back in the Windows XP days 😅

What is the best way of going about this, and what tool(s) would you guys recommend?
 
I still use MalwareBytes for health checkups and if a double scan is needed, Bitdefender. I install the app, fully update in trial mode and then uninstall to get the bloat off the targets machine.

I would start with simply looking at what's running on the system and who's the obvious resource hog. If no obvious CPU or MEM usage extremes are seen then look into testing hardware. Rotary drives as example. Viruses are a relic these days, more likely to be infected with a bitcoin miner or other scheme to benefit off your data or resources. If you have Norton, McAfee or other scam ware software suite, remove immediately.
 
Hmm, isn't best practice to scan a drive before you get into Windows though? As the nasties can hide from any programs you install once you're in Windows...
 
Sumanji said:
Hmm, isn't best practice to scan a drive before you get into Windows though? As the nasties can hide from any programs you install once you're in Windows...
Click to expand...
Not really, however, there are a lot of "it depends" to attach to that. If you have a boot sector/BIOS virus the only way to find is through boot disk scanning. If you're that infected though you're in real trouble. In todays climate, a super slow laptop is generally a good app acting dumb, hardware starting to fail or more remote malware taking up your hardware resources. I would initiate a scan through malwarebytes to get started after checking system vitals. Depending on what you find will dictate next steps.
 
Awesome, thank you both for the suggestions... will try both and report back what I find (hopefully nothing too bad!).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top